"Good fences make good neighbors" is an often-quoted line from Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" about two farmers united in their effort to rebuild a wall that divides their land. Less well known is the poem's central query: "Why do good fences make good neighbors?" It's a question that seems particularly relevant in today's world, and it's at the heart of the Kyoto Experiment festival running through Nov. 13.

Since its 2010 debut as an annual event, the festival's organizing committee and volunteer network have worked to develop it as a world-class, cross-cultural platform for dance, theater and contemporary art under the directorship of Yusuke Hashimoto.

This year, however, the festival has been split into spring and autumn programs, with the former focused on "art expressed through the body" and the current program exploring "the frameworks that prescribe our world, namely, language and borders."